David and Gladys Wright House

SO glad this important piece of Phoenix history is finally being shared with the City.
Phoenix residents — We do have history here. Important things have been done here, and there are permanent reminders all around us of them. If we remove the permanent reminders, or worse yet ignore them, it makes it hard to remember the amazing things that have been done in Phoenix. That is why so many people think we have no culture here. Of course we have culture — a long history of it — but how do you know it is/​was there if you get rid of the permanent reminders of it? How do you know our history if you don’t go see these places and learn about what happened there? My gosh, to think that we have our own Falling Water that was in our midst all this time and we didn’t know it, just boggles my mind.
If you have ever scoffed about Phoenix «culture», or have an interest in our history, start by seeing the David and Gladys Wright House. It’s a beautiful piece of architectural design, an amazing piece of engineering, and an important piece of our rich history.
I recently visited the house and learned so much from the docents there. They make it interesting by engaging with each visitor and trust me they will share some piece of information with you that you will find fascinating. This is no boring museum trip.

Came here for a holiday lights open house this year.
You park at the south side of the church at 5225 E. Camelback and there is a door that you walk through to get to the Wright House.
I have to share, it was a beautiful evening. The weather was warm and even before we got out of our car, we could see the hundreds of Christmas lights twinkling in the distance.
As we walked through the door, we were greeted warmly by volunteers and there was a long, long driveway leading to a giant Christmas tree beautifully lit, the long driveway continues to the house.
There was a string quartet playing and hot chocolate/​coffee & macaroon served by the Henry.
I brought my 9 year old son & his friend with me. There were not too many kids there which was too bad since the look of wonder on their faces were priceless.
They were old enough to appreciate the experience and the architecture. It created a memorable experience for them.
The house itself is being restored and sits on I think sits on at least a 3 acre property. It’s beautiful & worth a visit.
Thank you for opening this up for the public for this holiday season!

I like anything Wright! Great tour, beautiful grounds, beautiful architecture, friendly docent. The view is amazing of Camelback Mtn. The amazing thing is that the house is occupied by one of the Wright’s to this day. So the tours are scheduled and held during the day, while she works. They are in the process of getting permits for historical preservation, if you can please donate. The Wright houses are too amazing to be lost.

Wow! What an amazing historical interesting place to visit. Viewing the house itself if 5 stars easy. The only reason I gave it 4 is there is not much organization when it comes to touring. The two tour guides didn’t know which one was supposed to take our tour and neither really wanted to with both suggesting the other gives better tours and should do it. Nice tactic but I didn’t want to listen to it. The house itself if fascinating and the stories as well are great. I didn’t know much about Frank Lloyd Wright but learned enough this trip to make me very interested in learning more and visiting more sights.
They are currently trying to get permits to get the home historical preservation status and build a gift shop/​museum underground as well as an amphitheater to host musical events. I booked on the foundation website but some of the people in the group appear to have booked somewhere else.
Beautiful home, beautiful view, and well worth an hour of your time to go see.

In 1952 Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW), perhaps the most famous architect of the 20^th century, designed a home for his son David and David’s wife Gladys not far from Taliesin West, his own Scottsdale, AZ winter headquarters (on which he worked from 1937 until his death at 91 in 1959). Unlike his own multi-​building home cum college campus, this is a domestically sized structure, still featuring a tight period kitchen and numerous typically FLW built in components. Although today the unobstructed views of distant hills over a surrounding orange orchard shown in period photographs have been built up, the house itself still sits on a large lot which is in the process of landscape restoration and free tours are available by appointment.
There are dozens of FLW private homes and public buildings open for viewing across the U. S (including the original Taliesin in Spring Green, WI as well as nearby Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ), but the David and Gladys Wright House features a very different sensibility and is definitely worth a trip for lovers of contemporary architecture and design. Occupied by Gladys Wright until her death in 2008, the house narrowly escaped destruction by developers anxious to turn the two acre site into something «new,» and missing the modernity and uniqueness of the structure. The house is built in a spiral which for those who know it instantly brings to mind FLW’s later Guggenheim Museum (NY) whose construction he was overseeing at his death as well as his unrealized Automobile Objective of decades earlier.
Because of the objections of some owners of neighboring mansions (whose placards stating «Wright House, Wrong Place» opposing the opening of the house to the public could still be seen on some local lawns in summer 2015) there are limited amenities here and even with a reservation you must park at a neighboring church and enter almost surreptitiously through an otherwise imperceptible door in a stockade fence surrounding the property. However, there is increasing local recognition of the value of the home to the entire community as well as the world at large so thanks to those who formed a foundation to save the house it is anticipated that it will become increasingly accessible. Only very limited numbers can be accommodated and indeed I was the only person to show for the tour I booked last month; the guide was pleasant, if not necessarily an expert.